Right now, it’s only sustaining one airport with annual operating subsidies, he said.

A proposed $9-million expansion of the Margaree municipal airport in Inverness County doesn’t make financial sense, MacLean said Wednesday.

Port Hawkesbury’s airport is still losing money every year, even though traffic has increased due to the opening of the Cabot Links golf course in Inverness, he said.

“If the governments said next week, ‘We’re going to approve all of the funding for the Margaree airport,’ we would automatically make a press release to shut down this airport,” the mayor said.

“It’s just business, that’s all I’m saying. It’s not that we’re pro or con. We have an airport that is struggling, has struggled for the last 10 or 15 years, and we managed to keep it going.”

Inverness County is putting together a plan to get federal and provincial money to double the length of the Margaree runway and to improve terminal

and hangar buildings, possibly in 2016.

The Cabot Links golf course is attracting patrons who fly into Port Hawkesbury and drive about an hour to Inverness. A sister course, Cabot Cliffs, is under development nearby.

The golf courses are about a half-hour drive from the Margaree airport in Margaree Valley, just off the Cabot Trail.

MacLean said the town of Port Hawkesbury subsidizes its airport with $35,000 a year, and the municipalities of Guysborough, Richmond and Inverness kick in another $85,000, totalling $120,000 annually.

Last year, MacLean said, the airport turned a profit of $52,000, and most of that was from gasoline sales.

Without municipal subsidies, the airport couldn’t operate, he said.

The Port Hawkesbury facility was slated to shut down three years ago, but increased traffic, attributed mostly to the golf course in Inverness, helped keep it open.

There is also some hope that oil and gas developments in the Strait of Canso will boost Port Hawkesbury airport traffic.

MacLean said tenders were about to be called on a $1.4-million improvement to Port Hawkesbury’s navigation system last month, but he put them on hold after hearing about the proposed Margaree expansion.

“That’s now up in the air because we don’t see the value of doing it if we’re going to have an airport that’s going to save the golfers 20 minutes of driving to get to the tee-off.

“Open one and close another one. That’s not very smart business sense.

“You’ve got to say, ‘Look, it’s going to make money,’ or ‘It’s going to provide better service or serve the public in a better way,’ but none of those issues have been addressed.

“So we’re just saying to the government: Be sensible, be prudent. We have an airport. It is struggling. If you want this one to close, build the other one in Margaree.”